EXCLUSIVE: Mike Krack’s big defence of ‘unfairly treated’ Lance Stroll

The level of criticism aimed at Lance Stroll is “very unfair”, according to Aston Martin F1 team principal Mike Krack.

Question marks have been raised over Stroll’s performances and commitment to F1 this season, particularly after an embarrassing gaffe which saw him crash out on the formation lap at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Critics have even gone as far as to suggest that Stroll is the weak link in Aston Martin and only continues to hold onto his seat by virtue of his billionaire father and team owner Lawrence.

Krack points to how Stroll compares against two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all-time, as an indication of how he is under-appreciated.

The stats, on paper at least, are fairly decisive in Alonso’s favour. During their two seasons together as teammates, Stroll has scored 98 points to Alonso’s 274 and been out-qualified by the Spaniard 37-8 (only including grand prix qualifying sessions).

But Krack argues the gap between the pair is actually “very small” and has been influenced by other factors, including Aston Martin letting both drivers down with the equipment at their disposal.

“Is Lance treated unfairly? Yes, big time,” Krack told Crash.net as part of a wider exclusive interview. “First of all, if you look at the gap that he has to his teammate, who is one of the best of all time, it’s very small.

“We have someone who is very serious about car development, simulator driving, being fit and being constructive in the meetings.”

Krack believes Stroll is mainly perceived - wrongly - based on his interactions with the media.

“He is judged mainly on the delivery of media duties,” Krack explained. “He’s a racing driver and for me a racing driver has to drive in the first place.

“Now we also know that Formula 1 has evolved, there is a lot of exposure and media duties and commitments. I think that is something people really put the focus on.

“What we do as a team, and this is especially the focus, is the gap to the one of the best of all time. He’s very competitive. Where we fall foul is just delivering the tools and the machine to both drivers to deliver that.

“When you see Fernando finish ninth in the championship, it’s not amazing, but it’s Fernando so everybody says ‘it is the car’. Lance did a fantastic result in Mexico with the slowest car, that day finishing 11th - nobody talks about it.

“Fernando finished 11th in Monza and it’s the big thing. So I think it’s very unfair the way that he’s perceived to the outside world.

“On the other hand, we don’t bother [about it] too much. We know we have a different individual; very nice, very constructive, working hard, pushing and quick.”

Stroll ‘loves driving’ and F1

Several onlookers have questioned whether Stroll has fallen out of love with F1 due to his demeanour and the way he often carries himself in interviews.

Speaking recently on the Red Flag Podcast, ex-Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner observed: “He never seems to be happy, whatever happens.

“Put it this way: if daddy wouldn’t have a team, I don’t think Lance would be a Formula 1 driver, because he doesn’t want to be one.”

But Krack insists this is simply not true and revealed Stroll called him up during the recent three-week break to see whether he could conduct any private testing in old F1 machinery.

When asked if he can see Stroll’s passion for F1, Krack replied: “Absolutely, absolutely.

“When we had the three week break recently and I had Lance on the phone asking if we could organise some driving somehow in an old car, because he wants to drive. So that’s the difference. It’s a sport with no testing and we have someone who loves driving.

“It’s very unfair when you read some of the comments and they are often written without much research, because it suits the public opinion, let’s write that and we can fill some lines. There is a really skewed picture.

“You have that in every sport, you have the bad guys, the good guys, you have the drawer to fill and Formula 1 is the same.”